Where to Find Real Joy

“But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” – John 17:13

I have a confession to make; I never liked Fred Rogers when I was growing up. Of all the kids’ shows I could watch when I was little, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood just didn’t cut it for me. I was a sarcastic kid who liked things on the sarcastic side. In his show, the puppets were all kind of poorly made, and the musical background was like out of some annoying music box. But worst of all, Mr. Rogers himself was never funny and always syrupy sweet. He’d say dumb things like, “You’re special. Of all the people in the world, there is no one like you.” That just made me cringe.

Until later in life, that is. As I got older and more emotionally mature, I found an immense joy in the words of Fred Rogers. In this world filled with meanness and insult and criticism, he went on TV everyday and took the time to tell children that they mattered, and being kind was the highest virtue anyone could reach toward. I later learned that that old-fashioned, soft-spoken character who invited us into his land of make believe every day was not a character at all. That was Fred. He was totally just being himself.

Could you imagine a world where people honestly treated each other that way? EVERYTHING wrong with our world would come to an end. No one would pursue their own interests at the expense of others. Creativity and imagination would be allowed to not just brighten our daydreams, but they would transform the world. Looking for the good in everyone and everything—not denying the bad but seeing both—could dramatically reduce depression and anxiety around the globe.

But Fred wasn’t the architect of this way of thinking and living. Our Saviour and Lord, Jesus made His life about communicating this to others. I’m not saying that Jesus only offered saccharin platitudes when He spoke; there was a lot of hard truth and stiff rebuke in His speech. But read the verse above. In it, Jesus is praying to His heavenly Father. He admits that the very reason He spoke to His disciples and all the people was so that they might have joy! John calls Him the Word, and the words of the Word were spoken so that you could be filled with joy throughout your entire life.

And so, have you spent time recently reading the words He spoke while on earth? I don’t ask this as a way of chastising you or making you feel guilty for not picking up the Bible or anything like that. Rather, I hear constantly how down people are with all that’s going on in their life and how they wish they had more hope and joy to help them with the difficulty. Jesus wants you to know that His words truly do have the ability to make sunshine out of dark clouds.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.